Hurricane Sandy

Thankfully despite scary 40-50 MPH winds we survived just fine. We brought all the outdoor chairs and furniture inside. Put the toys in the shed, stocked the woodpile, filled the flashlights with fresh batteries, and made sure we had plenty of wood for the fireplace. And amazing ( and thankfully) enough we didn't even lose power.  I think its because Mike told me that if we did lose power he was buying a generator ( it would be the third extended power outage in the 1.5 years we have been in this house) and frankly I would much rather put $400 in my hardwood floor fund than to buy a generator. Schools were closed for 2 days and other than the 200 something sticks I just picked up in the backyard and the piles of leaves everywhere life continues on as normal.

Trick or Treat 2012

 No snowstorm this year!! Woohoo!! It was a beautiful mild night...  ( the calm before the storm? Hurricane Sandy is headed our way!)

 The family angel ( cough cough!)

 Care Bear

 Little Monster

Trick or treat with friends and cousins

Ultra Sound of baby #4 in 3D

 Kinda blurry because he ( yes its a boy!!!!!!!!) was moving like crazy but his hand is in his mouth ( like he is chewing his fingers ) Also 3D is is not that great with a baby of this age ( 18 weeks gestation) but I think it came out pretty decent.

 The must have proof of the gender.

Profile ( not in 3D obviously!)

Our professional photo shoot

The plan was to take beautiful pictures outside with the foliage but the temp was in the 20's so we opted instead to do them at our house so we could run inside afterwards to warm up. This the first time we have had professional pictures since our wedding. It was fun and tiring and definitely not something we want to do every year. I love the expressions on the kids faces in alot of these pics. These are unedited, rough drafts of the pictures.

The joys of an older sister

 notice the stickers on her belly and cheeks.

 Add a wand and some glasses and voila... the 1 year old diva.

Israel's John Deere 3rd birthday

 Israel wanted a riding mower cake and plates etc. This was as close as we could get. He loves mowers and John Deere.

 The internet is great for finding odd birthday stuff!

 Cake topper John Deere hats courtesy of Ebay. Riding Mower on cake and Tractor also from Ebay. Cake decorating skills all Mike's handy work.

One happy little 3 year old!!!

Goofy

 Happy 18 months Nairi!!! Her language is exploding. She is stringing 3 and 4 words together no doubt in part to her copying every word that comes out of Keira and Isarel's month. She even says " Why????" when you tell her to do something or to not do something. Which you know having 3 kids who ask why to your every move is not annoying in the slightest.

 Kung Fu fighting with the scare crow?

 I can't believe he is going to turn 3 in a few days. He is such a sweet, silly little boy.

 I asked them to sit down so I could take a pic. Yeah they listen well.

 Giving Nairi a kiss. He loves her and he bothers her like crazy. At 18 months old Nairi can say. "Israel!! Bothering!!"

 JUMPING

Whatever Israel does she must copy.
In other news Keira and Mary are adjusting to school and I am adjusting to my new title of chauffeur. Israel and Nairi have deemed school pick up time as snack time and the floor of the van and their carseats now have enough crumbs to feed a small daycare. And I think I have come to realize that what I thought was witching hour before was just a precursor  The hours of 3 -5 pm are nutty around here. Everyone is tired and cranky, there is homework and dinner prep and aye yi yi. Its nuts. I have never been so glad to see 7 pm.

 If you have little kids and need some humor to your day read this http://athimons.com/2012/10/02/get-real/

Mike's 31st birthday- a few weeks late!

Blowing out the candles is a family affair in case you can't tell. Mike is disheartened because two people recently thought he was 40. Poor guy. Me being the sympathetic wife said " Well what do you expect since you are bald and grey and haven't slept past 6 am in 5 years? " So everyone please tell the guy how young and handsome he is.